


Snow Day

by connorssock



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Brief mention of IV (needles), Chest infection, Going To Work Ill, M/M, Sick Fic, Sick Gavin, Snowed In
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-16
Updated: 2018-12-16
Packaged: 2019-09-20 08:04:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17018880
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/connorssock/pseuds/connorssock
Summary: Gavin had finally succumbed to the bug going around but he was stubborn enough to go to work ill. Of course the snow gets heavier, it's impossible to get home, he needs to go out on a case and gets doused in water which just makes things worse.





	Snow Day

The forecast for the rest of the week was heavy snow. Even Fowler had told people to think about getting to and from work safely, and to not be afraid to ask to go home early if it looked like the weather conditions were going to get worse. Basically, it was prime time for Gavin to develop a chest infection that wouldn’t budge.

He spent a morning at the doctor’s already, had been given antibiotics and an order to try and take it easy. Which, on most days, would have been easy enough, however, with it being the season where so many people were off on holiday or ill he really couldn’t in good conscience take time off. So he dragged himself into work, loaded up with cough sweets and meds to keep himself more or less coherent. There was no denying that he felt like crap, the cough which had been steadily getting worse over the last few days left him breathless while his voice dropped an octave or two.

“That’s perhaps the manliest you’ve ever sounded,” Tina laughed at his misery.

“Makes me an even better detective, right?” he asked. The effect of his joke was somewhat lost when he coughed into his sleeve.

A soft boof to his side made Gavin look up and he frowned at the dog that drooled by his elbow, looking up with droopy, sad eyes.

“Sumo,” Hank’s voice was loud in the bullpen and the dog looked up at his name and trotted over obediently.

“The fuck you got your dog here for?” Gavin asked even as his voice buckled into a cough half way through.

“With the weather as is, I can’t be sure when I’ll get back. Can’t leave the poor mutt home alone for too long,” Hank shrugged as he walked past towards his desk.

Sumo cast one more look at Gavin and whined before settling down by Connor’s feet.

“Smart. You drive?”

“Like I’d walk an hour to get here,” Hank scoffed and looked over at Gavin. “Don’t tell me you walked?”

“Like I’d take my bike in this weather. Being suicidal is your shtick, not mine.”

Hank let out a gruff laugh and threw his hands up in defeat. It was just as well he didn’t continue yelling across the precinct for conversation, Gavin wasn’t sure his voice would be up for that. Instead, he quietly returned to his work and tried to focus. He’d taken pills in the morning, enough to make sure he could get on with work, his fever held in check. But nothing he did could stop the coughing that would start as a niggle in his throat which he’d try to quash with sheer will power, then clearing his throat and taking a sip of coffee. Nothing worked though and he’d eventually succumb to a coughing fit.

“God, somebody shut him up please,” Tina whined not too quietly.

“Sorry.” Gavin didn’t mean to be loud and distracting, not by coughing so much anyway.

Whatever else Tina was going to say was silenced by a look from Hank, the worry that Gavin was apologising set them on edge. Nobody missed the way work was passed around Gavin, he was given easier, less urgent tasks while Nines quietly lifted reports and files from his desk and filled them out for him. The fact Gavin didn’t even realise it spoke volumes to his wellbeing even as he insisted he was fine to keep working. If his eyes slipped shut for longer than a simple blink every now and then, it was quietly ignored.

Even Fowler tried to go easy on him, didn’t hassle him about report deadlines and handed out any work to other officers unless the task was something as simple as reading through a statement and signing off on it being filed correctly. That was only after he’d failed miserably at sending Gavin home early.

“Just go, Gavin,” Fowler had said.

“I’m fine. Work needs to be done.”

“We can hold down the fort. Take it easy for once, please.”

It wasn’t often the Captain used the word “please” with his detectives and Gavin glanced at him over the rim of his coffee cup. With a pointed look he stared out the window at the snow that was coming down in a mad flurry still.

“Maybe, when the storm dies down a little. Don’t want to walk an hour in that.”

Fowler had relented, even pulled a promise from Gavin that as soon as the snow stopped, no matter what he was doing he’d drop it in favour of getting home.

“I’ll make sure he does,” Nines had piped up then.

He’d been strangely quiet opposite Gavin. No snide comment about being inefficient, drinking too much coffee or even being a hazard to the workplace by spreading his germs.

“Why so quiet?” Hank had finally asked him in the breakroom while Nines was making another cup of coffee for Gavin.

“I can keep an eye on him here.”

 As the hours dragged on, Gavin could feel his eyes burning, his head felt heavy and everything sounded a little distant. He couldn’t stop the small shivers from the cold that seemed to emanate from his very bones. Not even the piping hot coffee he was sipping seemed to make a difference. There were still two more hours until he could take anything for it, he was going to have to tough it out.

It was still snowing when Fowler came out of his office, eyes scanning the bullpen. He frowned at the lack of people, most he’d already sent home. Sumo trotted up to him with a hopeful wag of his tail and got a pat in return.

“Reed, Nines,” Fowler approached their desk looking a little chagrin. “I hate to do this to you.”

“Let me guess, you need us to go out there for something?” Gavin’s voice was a whisper, forcing it just made his coughing so much worse.

“Got a call from the car dealership, it’s 10 minutes up the road. There was a break-in during their lunch hour.”

Gavin sighed and looked at Nines who didn’t look too impressed. It wasn’t like they had much of a choice; nobody else seemed available in the precinct so Gavin reached for the folder. Together, he and Nines bundled up in their coats and walked out into the snow.

Half an hour later Hank knocked on Fowler’s door.

“You seriously sent Gavin out?” he asked without even saying hello.

Fowler shot him an unimpressed look.

“I don’t have to explain myself to a subordinate-“

“Bullshit! You saw how sick the guy is; why not send anybody else out?” Hank raged.

“I would have, if my Lieutenant and his partner weren’t too busy sticking hiding out in the evidence locker and sticking their tongues down each other’s throats!”

An uncomfortable silence descended on them and Hank rubbed the back of his neck, face flushed.

“Yeah, about that,” he began in a fluster.

“I don’t need your excuses. But just because it’s snowing and half the precinct isn’t here doesn’t mean you can sneak off like that. Reed got shafted because of you.”

“Sorry,” Hank sighed softly and Fowler shrugged.

“Not me you need to apologise to, though I doubt he’ll need your sorry ass saying sorry to him. Just. Be more mindful next time, okay?”

                When Gavin and Nines returned to the precinct, people stared. Nines trailed behind the detective who was drenched head to foot in water, his coat crackled with each move as the ice broke on his coat.

“What the hell?” Hank wandered closer as Gavin shucked his sodden coat off. It landed on the floor with a splat.

“The awning of the neighbouring shop was heated. It couldn’t cope with the strain from the weight of the melted snow and unfortunately broke as Detective Reed was passing under it,” Nines explained.

He was dry and looked fine except for the red of his LED and the way his eyes tracked Gavin’s every move. Even Fowler had left his office to take in the scene, eyebrows furrowed with worry.

“Go take a warm shower Reed, that’s an order,” he said and Gavin simply nodded.

“I’ve got a spare hoodie in my locker,” Hank offered.

“And you can have my spare sweats,” Miller added.

Gavin gave them both a grateful nod, his lips formed the word “thanks” but no noise came out. He disappeared towards the showers, leaving a trail of sopping footsteps while Hank and Miller went to the lockers. They shared a glance when they heard Gavin’s hacking cough over the sound of the shower, painful and all body consuming. Without a word, Hank dropped the dry clothes on the bench and scooped up the wet ones Gavin had left on the other side of the bench. He shivered at how cold they felt but ignored it in favour of finding radiators to hang them up from.

Not 10 minutes later, Gavin padded out of the locker room in his borrowed clothes, hair fluffy from being towel dried. His bare feet barely made any sound on the tiles; a soft shuffle accompanied him as the hem of the sweatpants dragged on the ground. The breakroom beckoned him with the promise of a warm coffee but his heart sank when he saw the empty pot. With a longsuffering sigh, he set about sorting the percolator out for a fresh pot.

Out in the bullpen, Hank had cornered Nines.

“Anything I can help with in this robbery?” he asked.

“It was a relatively simple case to solve,” Nines replied. “There was no break-in. It was an insurance fraud attempt; unfortunately they forgot to wipe their CCTV footage so they were very short lived in their criminal activities.”

Hank snorted at that. Trust idiots to try and make a quick profit while the weather was bad. Before he could lament the general sorry state of humanity, a gentle hand was laid on his arm.

“I’m sorry to interrupt Lieutenant,” a PM700 model said.

If Hank was pushed he would have guessed she’d picked the name Polly for herself, but as it was he just smiled reassuringly at her.

“I noticed that Detective Reed is asleep in the breakroom. Anyone else, I would wake up but,” she trailed off and looked up at him shyly, “you know his temperament towards androids is patchy at best. Perhaps a human would be better suited to this endeavour.”

“Sure thing, don’t worry about it,” Hank replied.

“Sleeping on the job isn’t very professional, so I thought you ought to know.”

“I’ll go wake him up,” Hank reassured her.

He had meant to too, he’d wake Gavin up, but perhaps when it was safe to go home. However, his plans were scuppered when Tina bustled past with a wide grin.

“I’ve got this,” she hollered.

Nines, Hank and Connor followed at a slower pace, curious to see what she had in mind.

“Oh Gavin,” Tina trilled softly.

Gavin didn’t even stir. His knees were tucked under him, bare feet dangling off to the side as he slumped against the back of the couch. One arm was extended along the back and his head rested against his bicep while the other clutched a silver emergency blanket around his shoulders. Tina leaned in close, her phone held between their faces.

“Gavin,” she cooed.

Slowly, Gavin blinked his eyes open, hazy with sleep.

“BOO!” Tina yelled and cackled madly when Gavin jumped. His legs unfolded as he pushed himself back and he toppled off the sofa with a crackling thud. Tina laughed and pointed at him gleefully until a choked off wheeze was heard.

“Gavin?” she asked and peered at where he was lying on the ground.

With each attempted breath his back arched up, winded by his fall and further hampered by the chest infection.

“Oh shit,” Tina said and beat a hasty retreat as Nines and Hank knelt next to Gavin.

There wasn’t much they could do other than reassure him it was okay, to try and exhale but each time Gavin managed to suck in a bit of air it came out as a strangled cough. Minutes ticked by before his breathing settled into something a little less laboured, his face was pale and blotchy. Carefully, Nines gathered him up in his arms, tucked his head against his neck and rubbed his back through the judders.

“I’m going to have a word with Chen,” Hank growled and left Nines with Connor to look after Gavin.

That was the moment Fowler appeared in the doorway and took in the sight of two androids kneeling on the floor with one of his detectives protectively cradled in strong arms.

“Buses and taxis haven’t been running all day,” he told them and glanced at them again. “Set him up in the meeting room, it’s the warmest.”

Before anybody could move a low whine of electricity powering down sounded throughout the whole building and it was engulfed in darkness. Only the LEDs of androids gave out a soft glow.

“Great. Why aren’t the backup generators kicking in?” Fowler muttered.

It stayed dark, power was out in the whole block at least and Fowler, along with Hank began herding people into the meeting room. The door was shut, curtains pulled and people huddled together. Nines sat a on the other side of the room with Gavin, LED pulsing red.

“His lung capacity has 18% reduced, the stress on his cardiovascular system is up by 11% too,” he informed Hank who shuffled over. “Temperature is at 39.7 degrees Celsius. Any higher and I will have to take him outside into the snow to cool down.”

“He had some meds with him this morning, think we can get him to take it now?” Hank asked and watched as Connor unerringly went to grab them from Gavin’s desk, along with a glass of water.

It was scary how pliant Gavin had become. He took the offered pills, swallowed them down with the water, didn’t even flinch when some of it trickled down his chin and splashed under the neckline of his hoodie. Instead, he let himself be pulled back against Nines’ chest.

“We need to keep him warm,” Connor said and Nines nodded.

All too soon there was a soft heat emanating from Nines and Hank balked at the feel of it.

“You okay?”

“I can deliberately overheat for an hour or so, it should keep Gavin sufficiently warm.”

“What about after the hour?”

“I’ll take over,” Connor shrugged as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

True to his words, an hour later he and Nines gently transferred Gavin over. The lights were still out around the whole block, there wasn’t any sound from outside except the howling of the wind and the patter of snow against the windows.

Slowly, people began to doze around the room. The excitement of the power cut had fizzled out, with nothing else to do; a late afternoon nap was quite enticing to some. Others sat in small clustered and chattered quietly, androids and humans together in little huddles.

Connor passed Gavin over to Nines again and got up, his systems were overheating and error displays popped up in his vision. He would cool down in the hour it took for Nines’ systems to reach a similar state, but they both knew they couldn’t keep it up throughout the night. Hank had offered to help, but his body wasn’t warm enough, even under a silver emergency blanket, he still couldn’t generate the consistent heat they deemed necessary.

“Maybe I could help?” Polly asked.

Her LED had been removed, yet she moved comfortably in the dark. Given her earlier misgivings, it was a very generous offer but Nines declined. Logically, he knew that it was in Gavin’s best interest but he couldn’t shake the feeling that Gavin wouldn’t want to be passed around the precinct like some ragdoll, he wouldn’t take kindly to waking up in a stranger’s arms.

Twice more, Nines and Connor swapped places. Gavin stirred every now and then; in those moments they encouraged him to drink a little water. Both Nines and Connor needed a break, they settled Gavin against the wall warmed by their bodies and stood, motioning for Hank to follow.

“If his temperature doesn’t dip below 38.5 in the next hour, I think it would be prudent to make our way to the nearest hospital,” Nines confessed.

“That’s a good two hour walk away in this weather!” the reply from Hank was merely a statement of the obvious.

“Connor and I are aware. But Gavin’s condition is not improving. He will need medical attention and soon.”

“Shit, he’s up,” Connor swore and Hank looked to where his attention was focussed.

Gavin was standing on unsteady legs, trying to walk to who knew where. In an instant Nines was next to him, a hand around his waist and bearing his weight.

“Where are you off to?” he asked softly.

Whatever response Gavin gave was a mumble of words and a flailing attempt to reach something in thin air. Nines’ hand closed around Gavin’s wrist and pulled him closer to his chest with soft murmurs of reassurance. People watched them from their own spots on the floor with interest but nobody even thought about intervening.

                Loud banging on the precinct doors made everybody jump collectively. The streets outside were still dark but it seemed that little flashes of light were coming in through the curtains. Someone knocked loudly on the doors again.

Together, Hank, Connor and Fowler moved towards the door, holsters open, hands resting on guns. Hank pulled the door open and shivered as a blast of cold air hit him.

“Good evening Lieutenant Anderson, Captain Fowler, Connor,” a blond android smiled at them. “New Jericho heard of the severe weather conditions so we thought we’d help where we can. We bring food, drinks and blankets for those stranded at the precinct for tonight.”

“Simon,” Connor greeted the new arrival and stepped aside to usher him in. Outside, androids were using skis and sleds to make their way around. “I don’t suppose you have any medical supplies too?”

“Is someone injured?” Simon asked, his face scrunched up worry.

“Sick, Detective Reed has a chest infection that’s turning rather serious.”

Simon didn’t reply but he held out a white hand for Connor, silently asking for an exchange of information. Once done, he turned, raised a hand to his LED which flashed yellow for a few seconds before he turned back with a smile.

“Help is on the way. Meanwhile, why don’t we go in,” he pulled a large box behind him.

Lights were set up around the meeting room, sandwiches distributed along with warm drinks. In a quiet, darker corner, Simon rolled out a blanket and urged Nines to lay Gavin on it. Despite Gavin’s weak protests, Simon’s gentle words helped ease him into a quiet lull. A hand pressed against his forehead and Simon hummed.

“You’ve really got yourself into a pickle, haven’t you?” he chided gently.

“What are you doing?” Nines asked, a hint of defensive anger in his voice.

“I have vestiges of medical programming from my time as a family assistance android. It’s not much but more than you I believe.”

It was said so matter of fact that even Hank couldn’t bristle at it. Instead, he was joined by Connor leaning against the wall and Nines too. They watched as Simon fussed over Gavin, soothed him and helped him roll onto his side when a coughing fit took over. All while, he worked on rolling the left sleeve of Gavin’s hoodie up.

By the time a second android arrived at the door, a smaller backpack in tow, Gavin was mostly asleep again, left arm above the cover and sleeve pulled up above the elbow. The new android worked quickly, without hesitation around Simon.

“What are you doing?” Hank asked with suspicion.

“He’s dehydrated, needs more than over the counter medicine. I’ll set up an IV and when he’s a little more stable we’ll get him over to the hospital.”

“He really that bad?” Fowler interrupted.

“He’s really that bad,” Simon replied. There was a sad, soft smile to his lips as he looked down at Gavin who let out a pained whine when the cannula was slid into his arm.

“Shit,” Fowler swore and rubbed his face. “I told the idiot to go home.”

“I’m sure you did, but in this weather and his condition? He’s more likely to have collapsed half way home and not been found until the snow melted than to have made it home.”

It was a chilling prospect and Nines’ LED flashed red at the thought. He missed the look Simon sent him, full of understanding.

“He’s in the best place possible given the circumstances. He’ll be fine.”

It took the IV a couple of hours to steadily drip through and take effect. Gavin’s sleep became a little less fraught with coughs though occasionally he still whimpered and Nines would soothe him gently. It was around half past three in the morning when his eyes opened and he actually focussed on Nines, more coherent than he’d been for quite a while.

“Nines?” he whispered and immediately had the attention he asked for.

“Yes Gavin?”

“Sorry,” he rasped, “and thanks.”

At four o’clock, Nines helped wrap Gavin up in a two blankets and walked out of the precinct with him to a waiting sledge. Simon and Connor waved them off as a few androids helped start pull them towards the hospital. It was still dark so Gavin leaned into Nines’ chest and let the motion of being pulled along lull him to sleep, trusting that Nines would keep him safe for the journey.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm still on tumblr (@connorssock) but also now migrated over to Pillowfort (@vaderina). Let's see how well I can manage two accounts XD


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